Journey Through Japan, which runs until November 11 2007, offers visitors an opportunity to travel back more than a century through the photographs of Majorie Bell (1890-1962), taken while she travelled around the country for two months with her mother, Hester and cousin, Leslie.

Bell’s collection of 33 photographs has been likened to Japanese lantern slides, snap shots of stereotypical iconic images in Japan, which were popular with western tourists during the late 19th and early 20th century. While the exhibition does include romantic and famous sights, including the magnificent Mount Fuji, it also exposes the raw reality of daily life.

The photographs are also accompanied by Bell’s diary entries during her journey, evoking her personal feelings about what she saw and experienced.

Originally hailing from Shelford in Victoria, Australia, Bell and her family arrived in the city of Kobe, south of Japan, on June 14 1903.

Just two days later the trio travelled by train towards Miyajima, now also known as Itsukushima, an island located in the Inland Sea of Japan. But far from the idyllic island images she had imagined, Bell noticed the austere living conditions and extreme poverty; the children with dirty clothes and bruised faces, the men and women who spent hours upon end cultivating rice fields, the daily struggle to survive.

More appealing scenery and landscapes were to follow. On June 18, the party stopped at the Itsukushima Shrine, a world-renowned Shinto temple, and were amazed to see that when the tide comes in, the Shrine actually appears to be floating.

Bell and her family were equally impressed with the awe-inspiring Katsuragawa Rapids, near Kyoto, which she describes as the most beautiful thing she had ever seen in her life, and also Nara Park, a serene setting that is home to brown spotted deer.

Then these peaceful and picturesque surroundings were traded in for the hustle and bustle of the shops and streets of Osaka, and the party later travelled to Nagoya Castle, a five-storey high architectural masterpiece built during the Edo period in 1614 by Tokugawa Ieyasu.

During their time spent in urban cityscapes, particularly in Tokyo, Bell noted how much more European people’s attitudes were, with many women wearing western fashions as opposed to a kimono.

But this by no means represented a rejection of traditional rituals or activities, as Bell’s photographs show. Sumo wrestling was, and very much is still synonymous with Japanese culture, as are the yearly Shinto festivals, in which smiling children are depicted carrying flags and wearing brightly coloured clothing.

The journey continued to the small city of Nikko, a centre of Buddhist and Shinto worship for centuries, to view the famous cedar trees along the Nikko highway, which were planted in 1649 to honour the 33rd anniversary of the death of Shogun Takogawa Ieyasu, and the spectacular Dragon Falls. Bell’s final stop in Japan was the simply stunning Mount Fuji, which seems a fitting end to their trip.

At the time these photographs were taken, Bell’s work would probably have been groundbreaking, a solitary window into a foreign, exotic land for many people. For a modern world that enjoys easy travel and Internet access it will not have quite the same revelatory impact.

The Horniman Museum is also hosting a textiles exhibition alongside Journey Through Japan.

Unwrapping Japan, which runs until February 24 2008, juxtaposes the simple cotton garments and straw sandals worn by rural workers with the elaborate, embroidered attire used for weddings, festivals and special rituals. Also on show is an explanation of the three main Japanese fabric-dyeing techniques.

While both exhibitions are definitely worth a glance, they might appeal most to those with a strong interest in Japanese history and culture, who can compare these images of the past with the society of today.